Conduct Heavenly Business Here On Earth - [Luke 19:13]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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December 30, 2007

00:01: Our Father in heaven, the first day of this week, O the beginning of a new week, and we thank you for your mercies towards us.
00:09: We thank you that you've kept us through not only this past week, but this time of year we consider the past year, these 12 months, and we've experienced of your goodness.
00:23: We thank you for your great kindness. We're thankful that you ever think upon us. We are your very own, bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus Christ, our
00:34: Lord and Savior, your dear Son. And so we come before you this morning asking that you would please bless us, please remember us today, teach us.
00:45: Lord, please tune our hearts to sing your praises. Lord, give us a desire to worship you as we should, and help us to do that in spirit and in truth, and do it to the glory and honor of Christ.
00:58: As we consider your word this morning, may we be taught of the Holy Spirit. May our lives be changed.
01:04: May not only it reach our minds and we understand what we read and hear, but that it so grips us that we can't live the same.
01:13: We pray that you would help us and equip us for the week that's ahead and for the new year that's coming.
01:20: I will give you the praise and the glory in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Well, can you believe it's
01:30: December 30th? There's only this day and then tomorrow and this year is gone.
01:37: And truly, as the scriptures tell us, our lives are very brief.
01:43: They're like a mist, James wrote. They're like when you go outside on a cold day, just the other day,
01:48: Naomi living in California, coming back home for a vacation at this time of year, she went outside once and she exhaled and you could see the mist.
01:58: And she says, you can't do that in California. And that is what our life is like. You know, that mist comes out and then it's gone.
02:07: Our lives are swifter than the weaver's shuttle. It says faster than the post, like we would say faster than like FedEx or maybe even something that can be delivered on the internet.
02:21: Our lives are so quick and the psalmist says to us that we, as we come before the
02:29: Lord, we should ask the Lord to teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
02:36: And what I want to do today is I'd like to, in this class, just kind of give us a time to reflect upon 2007 and also prepare ahead for 2008.
02:49: It's just around the corner and it's a great mercy, isn't it, of the
02:55: Lord to think of what has taken place in our lives in 2007. The Lord has been good to us. It is of the
03:01: Lord's mercies that we have not been consumed. And great is his faithfulness, as it says in Lamentations chapter three.
03:09: When we consider what is man, that God is mindful of him.
03:14: Who are we that God would think upon us and care about us? And yet we know for a fact, for those of us here who name the name of Christ, that it is because of the grace of God that he has saved us.
03:27: It is according to us, not by our works of righteousness, Titus three five says, but according to God's mercy, he saved us.
03:35: And that mercy and that grace has brought us a wonderful gift of salvation for us to know
03:43: Jesus Christ personally, for us to walk with God, for us to be the children of God.
03:51: And I don't know about you, but sometimes it's good for me to kind of just think about what is life about?
03:57: Take a little bit of an inventory, see where I've come from and see where I'm heading. And more importantly, seeing what it is that God is doing.
04:06: I remember one of the descriptions when I was reading through the Old Testament. I can't tell you what book it is, but I think it spoke of the men of Issachar.
04:14: And it said that they were men of understanding because they knew what God was doing. Basically, they knew what
04:20: God was doing in their generation. Isn't it? Isn't it? I mean, if you maybe some of you who are young here, you may not be able to do this.
04:29: If you're if you're in your 20s now, maybe you can think back of like what it was like when you were six or seven or eight years old.
04:36: And if you're in your 40s, maybe look back on your 20s. If you're in your 50s and above, you can look back at any any earlier year.
04:43: And you can think and you can think, and I just said this to somebody the other day, I didn't know anything. I was totally ignorant.
04:49: I mean, when it came to life, when it came to what it what it meant to live before God, live in the fear of God, live, live with the right attitude towards God and towards the things of God and think about time and the preciousness of it.
05:04: Think about the gift of just being able to breathe and to live and to move and have our being all a gift from God.
05:12: And sometimes we just don't take that inventory and we just take for granted that we are going to live another day.
05:18: And you'll remember in James chapter four, you remember James writing to those men who were making their plans.
05:24: It's okay to plan, but they were making their plans without reference to God. And they were thinking tomorrow, we'll do this and we'll do that.
05:33: You can just see them kind of taking the map of Massachusetts out or the
05:38: United States and we're going to go here and we're going to do this and do this and get gain and make a profit.
05:46: And the whole idea of James comes back and he says it's so foolish to think that way, to plan without reference to God.
05:53: And don't we have, and as I see Pastor Mike's here, Pastor Steve is preaching down the Cape this morning,
05:59: Cape Cod. Pastor Lou and his wife, what's his wife's name? Do you remember? I can't remember.
06:07: They had a little baby, Amy. Amy and Rocco is the name of the baby.
06:16: And that's where Pastor Steve is. And sometimes as pastors, we'll have folks that come to us and their plan is already signed, sealed and delivered.
06:26: They're just coming to us just to let us know, you know, would you put your stamp of approval on that? There's no upfront counsel.
06:34: There's no seeking advice. And it's dangerous to do that. There is wisdom in a multitude of counselors.
06:41: And sometimes when we plan, we don't plan with reference to wisdom. We don't plan with reference to what God's word says.
06:47: We don't plan with reference to God at all. And that was their whole problem was, we will do this, we and I. And it's not taking into account, what would
06:55: God have us to do? What is the will of God for us? If you read there in James chapter four.
07:00: So it's good for us to consider where we are and who we are and where we're going.
07:05: And in here on the brink of 2008, maybe we look back on 2007 and say, you know, there were things that by the grace of God and my life were changed and I did well.
07:17: But then we can look at our lives and say, there are things that we did not do well and need improvement or need repenting of.
07:25: I need to change. I need to go in an opposite direction. And I hope the Sunday school class this morning will help us in either way as we look back or as we look forward, either way, get a little bit of a focus upon what it is to be a believer and what our focus ought to be.
07:42: And hopefully I'm going to ask you for some input, even from the very beginning, I'm going to share with you. I had two
07:49: Sunday school lessons prepared and this one seemed to be the one that seemed to fit better.
07:56: The other one I liked because it was, maybe I might've got more of input from you and it kind of, it was entitled.
08:04: I was thinking maybe I'll use it some other time over the short brevity of my life, the things that I've learned by the grace of God.
08:12: But here this morning, what I'd like to do is I'd like to consider if you look, turn with me, you can turn first to Luke chapter 19.
08:18: That's where we'll end up for a text. But I want to share with you,
08:24: I don't know if it's, this is life verses or verses that have made an impact upon me. And you can hold your place in Luke 19.
08:30: I'm going to be looking at a couple of other verses before we actually get to this text. But there are times when
08:36: I reflect upon, when I meditate, when I muse as the Psalmist would say, and really consider and think about some texts of scripture that really grip me.
08:47: And when I think about them, they cause me to be very, either very convicted or very encouraged to be able to go on in the faith.
08:56: And for me personally, I'll give you a few of them. And maybe I'll ask if any of you have some. One of them is
09:01: Matthew 4 .19, where Jesus said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
09:12: And evangelism, the spread of the gospel, the spread of Christ's kingdom is very important.
09:19: Jesus came on the scene preaching, repent and believe the gospel. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
09:27: And when I read a verse, and when I think of follow me and I will make you fishers of men, that's what we've been called to do.
09:35: And sometimes I think about my year and I look back and I say, there are many opportunities that I took.
09:41: And there are many opportunities that I lost. Lord, forgive me. And I'm going to go on and strive by the grace of God to do better.
09:48: Matthew 6, verses 19 and 20. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves can break through and steal.
09:57: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust do corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
10:05: There are some times when I don't give a thought about that item that I'm purchasing as far as eternity goes or as far as it being a spiritual act.
10:16: But then there are some times when I take out my pen and I write that check and I know the seriousness and the weightiness of writing that check for whatever it is and particularly when it comes time to paying bills.
10:32: And I think of Matthew 6, 33 is another verse that has made such an impression upon me.
10:38: Seek ye but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added on you to put
10:44: God's things first and to give of your first fruits. And I think when it comes to budget time, it's like that's the time to write that check right off the top, not wait for the end and give the
10:55: Lord the scraps, but give him the best. And to write that check. And sometimes it's like, I don't know, but the
11:00: Lord loves a hilarious giver, it says, a cheerful giver. And I don't know if you've just been beside yourself as you've written that check and say,
11:07: I can't believe that God would save me and allow me to work and to be able to have a job, to work, to have an income, to be able to write a check and give it to the church.
11:16: And through that check, the church is supported and the gospel is gonna go forth. And we have full -time folks on the staff and literature and books and ministry and radio advertisements and people coming in.
11:30: It's like, and God allows me to be part of that. And my little portion helps.
11:36: So I wanna seek first the kingdom of God. Another verse that is very weighted to me is 1
11:44: Corinthians 10, 31. Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.
11:54: To have everything that we do in our lives be for the glory of God. 2
11:59: Corinthians 5 and verse 10 is another one speaking of that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive of the things done in his body.
12:09: There's gonna be a judgment, the behemoth seat coming one day that will stand before the Lord. And in the verse
12:15: I'm gonna get into in Luke 19, we'll kind of deal with that. But the seriousness and the weightiness of us supposedly striving and the motivation for us to be pleasing unto the
12:26: Lord and to live a life of joy and peace and rest in Christ and all that we have and the wonderful gifts.
12:34: I mean, even just thinking John chapter 10 there's a wonderful passage in there around verse 27 to verse 30, where it says that Jesus says that he gives unto us eternal life and we shall never perish.
12:49: And neither shall any man pluck us out of his hand as father which gave them to him as pastor
12:55: Mike preached last week is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck us out of the father's hand.
13:01: Just the idea of the fact that when it comes to salvation, it is secure.
13:07: It is eternal. It is an eternal redemption. It is eternal life. It is an amazing gift that God has given to us and it cannot be taken away.
13:17: And really, doesn't that help you when someone comes up and says, you know, this thing about salvation or being a
13:23: Christian, you know, if I just don't toe the line, if I don't work, if I don't do it, then I could lose my salvation.
13:30: Isn't it just a wonderful grace from God to reveal the truth to us in the scriptures that we are kept by the power of God through faith in Jesus Christ, that we are eternally the
13:41: Lord's. And that is something that, that likely some of these other verses are convicting, but that is a verse that is just so foundational.
13:48: It's just, it is just underneath us. So you can just see underneath us and sense underneath the everlasting arms.
13:55: Another verse that, that, that hits me every once in a while is Philippians 1, 21, where Paul says, for me to live is preaching or for me to live is my missionary journeys or for me to live is, is being able to know the
14:12: Greek and the Hebrew. No, he says in those things, I'm not belittling those things. Those are things that are important, but for to me to live is
14:20: Christ. He says, for me to live is everything that, it wasn't his family. It wasn't, it wasn't though it was friends.
14:27: It wasn't the care of the churches. All those, those things were things that so gripped and motivated and got a hold of Paul's life and heart that he totally gave himself to those things.
14:40: He abandoned himself for Christ and he gave himself for the church and for others. But he said, for me to live is
14:47: Christ. Colossians 3, 23, set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth.
14:55: So these are types of verses. I mean, does anybody, do you have like a life verse? Do you have a verse that maybe as the year is wrapping up, one that God has brought to you and has been very helpful to you this year?
15:09: Does anybody have one? You want to share one? I can keep going on, but I'd like to hear from you too. Anybody?
15:16: I'll give you another one as I think about it. First Thessalonians 2, 4. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God which tries our hearts.
15:30: We have been privileged. We have been allowed. We have been entrusted with. I like the way
15:37: Pastor Mike puts it sometimes. I get to do this. I get to preach. I get to serve.
15:43: I mean, it's a privilege that we have from the Lord and we've been entrusted.
15:49: And it's an important thing being entrusted, of course, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'm going to touch on that as we go on a little bit.
15:56: I remember even one verse every once in a while, of course, that this one is gives us great hope in the very last book of the
16:05: Bible, the very last second, the last verse of the scriptures. John is right.
16:11: And he says he which testifies these things says and he's here's the words of the Lord. Surely I come quickly.
16:18: Amen. So be it. Even so, come Lord Jesus, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
16:25: Amen. Scripture. Going over it, memorizing it, meditating upon it, personalizing it, living it, desiring to walk in it and having it having a grip us and and having it make an effect or have an effect upon us, not just to read it, to know it, but to read it, to live it.
16:45: And it is it is verses like this. There was another one I was thinking of in Colossians chapter three.
16:54: I'll have to read it because I can't remember how it starts, but Colossians chapter three. And in verse 23, kind of very similar to First Corinthians 1031.
17:03: And whatsoever you do, do it heartily, do it. That word means to do it from the soul with with all of your being, with your intellect, with your will, your your volition, your emotion, and with all your affection, do it, do it heartily as to the
17:21: Lord, not on the men, knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the
17:29: Lord Christ. What a what a privileged people we are to be called the sons and daughters of God.
17:37: And I was wondering, did anybody think of one? Did you have one? Yes. Amen.
17:56: God is. He helps. He's the helper of the helpless. There's a
18:02: Psalm in the King James where it says that God takes us up off the dunghill. I don't have to be descriptive enough to tell you what that is, but God takes us off of the dunghill and he puts us in palaces.
18:14: I think of Mephibosheth in the Old Testament. Remember him? He's there in I think he lived in Lodibar.
18:22: And because of a promise that David had made to his friend Jonathan, that he would watch over his seed and Mephibosheth being of the seed of Jonathan.
18:35: He goes and he snatches him out of Lodibar. And if you remember the account of Mephibosheth when he was younger, the maid had taken him up to flee and dropped him,
18:45: I believe, and he became lame on his feet. He was an invalid. And David brings him into the palace and he is to sit at David's table and to feast and be taken care of all the days of his life.
18:59: A great and perfect picture of a sinner who is dead in trespasses and sins, lame when it comes to the things of God.
19:11: And God comes and he makes and changes the whole situation like we heard last week about being reconciled to God through the cross and the blood of Jesus Christ.
19:19: And we come into that relationship with God. And surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives.
19:26: And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Another verse. Another one, Fred. Amen.
20:02: Yeah. Security in the Lord. Though we and we will fall, it says we will, but we will not be utterly cast down.
20:09: The Lord upholds us with his hand, Bruce. Amen. Any others?
20:44: None. OK. Let's do this. Let's go to Luke chapter 19. And I'll take the remainder of the time and just hopefully the
20:57: Lord will encourage us here, will refocus us, will cause us to think upon 2007 and then look ahead to 2008 with a hope, with an encouragement that our
21:10: God will be strong on our behalf. We've got something to do as believers, as servants of the
21:17: Lord. If you look with me in Luke chapter 19, I'll begin reading in verse 11.
21:24: This is right after the account of Zacchaeus. And the Lord had said the
21:30: Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost in verse 10. And in verse 11, it says, and as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable because he was nigh to Jerusalem and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.
21:43: And he said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.
21:49: And he called his 10 servants and delivered them 10 pounds and said unto them, occupy till I come or do business until I come.
21:59: But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us.
22:05: And it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, that he commanded these servants to be called unto him to whom he had given the money and that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.
22:18: Then came the first saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained 10 pounds. And he said unto them, well, thou good servant, because thou has been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over 10 cities.
22:30: And the second came saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained 5 pounds. And he said, likewise, him be thou over 5 cities.
22:37: And another came saying, Lord, here is thy pound, which I've kept laid up in a napkin. For I feared thee because thou art an austere man or an exacting or a harsh man.
22:46: Thou takest up, thou layest not down and reapest thou did not sow. And he said unto him, out of thine own mouth, will
22:52: I judge thee, thou wicked servant, thou knewest that I was an austere man taking up that I had laid not down and reaping that I did not sow.
23:00: Wherefore, then gavest not thou money to the bank that at my coming I might have required mine own with interest or usury.
23:06: And he said unto them that stood by, take from him that pound and give it to him that 10 pounds. And they said unto him,
23:12: Lord, he hath 10 pounds. For I say unto you, that everyone which hath shall be given and from him that hath not even that he hath shall be taken away from him.
23:21: Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me. Of course, we cannot look at all of this text.
23:29: But what I like to concentrate on is around verse 13, where we have we have this account where there are these servants and there's a certain nobleman.
23:37: Of course, if you if you study and you look into this, of course, this speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is buried.
23:44: He walked out of the grave. He's now ascended into heaven. He's in the presence of the father in a far country compared to here below.
23:52: And he's going to receive for himself a kingdom. God, the father exalts
23:57: Jesus. He puts him at his right hand. He is appointed sovereign Lord over the church. And Jesus will one day come to judge all men.
24:04: And he's given all authority in heaven and earth. He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords.
24:09: And it says he is going to return. And the scriptures are clear when it comes to the return of Christ. But what
24:14: I'd like to focus on is the objects of this who are going to experience this.
24:20: We have we have these servants in verse 13. The message, these slaves, these 10 slaves and brethren, this message is for us today.
24:32: It's relevant for us, those who profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is our our savior.
24:38: We are now servants of the living God. And we are in this world to represent him.
24:45: And here it says in this text that he gave them. He gave them this these pounds or are in your in your in your translation, it might be a minor.
24:59: It could be it's just a small amount of money. Relate it. It equated to about three months wages. And he said he wanted them to do something with that.
25:11: At the end of verse 13, he says, occupy till I come or your your translation might say do business.
25:20: And that's the focus for the remainder of the Sunday school class. This idea that that God has entrusted us with a stewardship.
25:31: And what are we going to do with it? How did we do in 2007? Maybe we'll reflect upon that.
25:39: And maybe we'll be able to look back and say, you know, by the grace of God, I was able to do this or that for the glory of Christ.
25:47: And I'm just thankful for what God did. And I and then you might think, well, I I missed many opportunities.
25:53: But God has been good to me. And I know that God is a God who is ready to forgive.
25:59: And I confess my sin and I've repented of it. And I've looked to him for mercy. And I strive by the grace of God, not only just to do all and to excel in all that I do.
26:11: But what we have here is this this parable, this this earthly story with a heavenly meaning, this physical account with a with a spiritual teaching behind it for us.
26:23: And I wonder if we've just considered what it is that the Lord's given to us. What is it that God has entrusted us with?
26:30: What is it? What is it that we are to be stewards of? In the Greek, this word represents, as I said, about three months wages.
26:37: It is it is a small amount of money. The master has gone away. He's going to return a little while and he gives us a sufficient portion for us.
26:47: And he says, occupy, it means that in the Greek means to busy oneself. It means to trade.
26:53: It means to make a profit. In other words, Jesus is saying, do business until I come back.
27:00: We are not given this money just just to hide it someplace. And we see later on that that is that is the wrong attack to take.
27:09: But we're supposed to do something with it. The money representing the stewardship that we have, the complete stewardship.
27:16: And I'd like to list some of the things and maybe discuss that a little bit and get some input from you. If as as we go on here, the
27:23: Lord would have us to do business for him. We ought to hear his words and be obedient and act upon his command to to be a representative of Jesus Christ, Daniel.
27:49: All right. As I said, I won't be able to get into all this, but there's a group of people that are obedient to him and they are going to be his servants.
27:56: And there's a group of people that are his enemies. In verse 14, you have the enemies. You have those that don't want him to rule over him.
28:02: And they're the ones at the end that you will see that are judged differently. But then there's a group of people that have been given this.
28:15: I think the ones in verse 14 are the ones that are dealt with in verse 27 as his enemies. You'll see there.
28:22: But the other ones that received the other ones that receive talents, the ones that receive some type of a stewardship, they're all judged based upon what they did with it.
28:31: One did great with a great return. One had a lesser return. And then the third one had no return professing to be a believer.
28:38: And that's a whole nother message. It could be it could be somebody who professes to have faith, but there's just no fruit there.
28:43: And he's he's dealt with. And you can look back in first Corinthians chapter three and you can see that there are those that that serve there.
28:52: They name the name of Christ. They profess to be Christians. They they are in the church and they are it's it's the wood, hay and stubble.
29:00: It's the worthless things that they've done. And that they that's how they've taken care of the stewardship.
29:06: And then there are the gold, silver and the precious stones. And that's the worthwhile labors for Christ that will be judged upon.
29:13: But you'll still notice that those in first Corinthians three, it says that those who had the wood, hay and stubble were being saved yet by fire.
29:21: They're just they didn't have much to show for themselves. I think there's two groups of people here that that we can see in this account.
29:28: But back to verse 13, this occupy. I think the idea here is that we are to be ambassadors for Christ.
29:36: We are to conduct. This is another one of the better ways I could put this to conduct heavenly business on Earth in a very hostile day with what
29:46: God has given to us as far as talents, abilities, spiritual gifts, time, the gospel and so forth.
29:54: The truth of the of the word of God, we are to serve our master and complete opposite as those that hated him.
30:02: As we just looked at in verse 14. The idea is, is I believe the Lord would have us to make a profit with the resources that he's entrusted us with at my job, at my company.
30:14: And maybe if you work at a company, they have a they have a training budget. And so many training days are allowed for all the employees in the company.
30:23: And they send us away. Maybe it might be off site or some of that training is done in house.
30:29: And the company. After tooling us, after getting our skill set raised.
30:37: After increasing our knowledge of our job or the tools that we need or giving us some tools, they expect a return.
30:45: If you take money and you take it to the bank and you're going to put it in a in a savings account, it has 2 % interest.
30:52: You would hope that after the year or the period of time that it's been in there, you go back and you expect that that interest.
30:59: Even our Lord and his teaching use that that principle in here. You expect to get something if you've invested.
31:06: And the idea here is that the Lord is has entrusted us as believers, not just the select few, but every believer, every person who names the name of Christ has been given, as it were, these resources.
31:23: It's equated here in the parable with this amount of money. And the idea is that not only has the
31:31: Lord gone away, but he's given us some resources and he is going to return.
31:38: And when he returns, he expects increase. He expects a gain. He expects profit.
31:44: That we are to do something with that which he's given to us. And think about it. What are the things that the
31:51: Lord has brought our way? I think I'll just open it up. I have a I have a list, but I'll open it up.
31:56: What is it that God and his mercy, that God, when it comes to visiting us with salvation, he comes to the center.
32:06: And we can we know that God has visited us with with the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
32:12: And and we have forgiveness of sins with the children of God through faith in Christ, as the scriptures tell us. And we have been saved.
32:19: But a person who's been saved, that's not all. I mean, the whole idea isn't, you know, we're just saved and there's this bed of ease.
32:25: There's, you know, blue skies and green grass and rosy carpets. And it's just kind of coast and nothing.
32:33: There's no responsibility. I we are you read the Apostle Paul, and it's all these all these words like this agonizing, this striving, this wrestling, this pressing with the not only with the military terms, but with the athletic terms of pressing in and pressing towards Christ and to giving our all for the glory of the
32:56: Lord. What is it that God has deposited with us as believers?
33:02: Somebody tell me something. What is it? What has he given us, Bruce? OK, so that would kind of go to 1
33:12: Thessalonians 2, for the verse I quoted, we've been entrusted with the gospel. Now, what do we do with this gospel?
33:19: We sit on it. I was just thinking yesterday. We are going to warehouse what we have kind of just store up the privilege that we have with the knowledge of that.
33:31: You know, warehouses sit on it. Hide it under the the bushel basket or what we're going to do,
33:38: Bruce. We're going to give it to others. That's the that's the responsibility we have.
33:45: Follow me. I'll make you fishers of men go into all the world and preach that gospel. Deliver it.
33:52: Now, look back on 2007. That's a that's something that's been deposited to us. You know, and sometimes we think, you know,
33:59: I just I just can't handle the sword like Brother so -and -so or like Brother Bruce or or Pastor Mike or Pastor Steve.
34:08: I mean, they they really can wield that sword and they can really deal it out as far as giving out the truth.
34:14: You look back on some of the folks in Scripture. I was thinking of the blind man in John chapter three.
34:21: He doesn't fully even understand what all took place, but he still pointed back to Jesus Christ.
34:27: He still pointed back to who it was that made the change in his life. And when it comes to giving out the gospel, don't think that you have to arrive.
34:35: Don't think that you have to. You have to know everything. You've heard it many times, but you can declare like the apostles did.
34:43: It says in Acts chapter four and five, the things that they had seen and heard. What has God done in your life?
34:50: How has your life changed since Jesus Christ came since the Holy Spirit came and revealed Christ to you and lifted you up off that dunghill, as we spoke of earlier, out of the miry clay and set your feet upon a rock and just declare it.
35:04: I'll never I'll never forget at one of the past pastors conferences, shepherds conferences, where John MacArthur and I think
35:11: I've heard Pastor Mike repeat this. The whole idea when it comes to the gospel is the idea of like being in a restaurant.
35:19: The next time you go to a restaurant and there's a chef in the kitchen, there's a waiter who or a wait person who brings that food to you on the platter out to your table.
35:29: Can you imagine if the chef has prepared it exactly the way that he wanted to sticks it on the platter?
35:35: You know how they clean the plate up and make the presentation look real nice and the waiter picks up the tray, starts walking out, looking at it.
35:43: I don't like that. They put that funny green stuff on there. I hate that stuff. Start throwing the things off and rearranging the plate.
35:50: And, you know, it's foolishness. The idea is, is that the waiter is supposed to deliver what it is that the chef has prepared exactly as it is.
35:58: And the whole idea is is to do it without dropping it, without messing it up. And when it comes to the gospel, it's not something that we change.
36:07: It's not something that we mess with. It's not something that we try to to reason or or with with folks, you know, and try even at times to defend it.
36:17: I like Spurgeon's, you know, idea of the whole thing. He was asked, well, how do you defend the truth? How do you defend the gospel?
36:23: And he says, I defend it like I would a lion. I let it out of its cage. That's what we do. We just declare it.
36:29: We let it be known. We herald it. That's what we do with the gospel. What else does God entrust?
36:34: And of course, when we do that, our desire is, is that that God would get a hold of people's souls and through the regenerating work of the
36:42: Holy Spirit, they'd be saved. They'd be born from above, become believers. Pastor Mike. Yeah, that's.
37:30: Yeah, well, you know that more than anything, Pastor Mike was my thought the whole week that has gripped me more than anything.
37:37: It's years and year after year after year of hearing the truth. And sometimes we are, you know, we're just so enamored with wanting to know more because I think what we think is if I know more,
37:49: I'm going to eventually get to that book. I'm going to get I'm going to get to that principle.
37:54: I'm going to get to that seminar. I'm going to get to I'm going to get to that blog or or that MP3 file that is going to just, just radically change the rest of my life.
38:06: And it's and it shouldn't be the things that we don't know or that we think that are our futures wrapped up and it's not the things that we don't know that should really affect us.
38:17: It's the things that we do know and we don't do anything about. It's the truth that God has given us.
38:22: As Pastor Mike was saying, we I'll give you I'll give you a personal example of this down in our basement.
38:27: We moved into our house two years ago. I think it was two years ago and we got this corner in the back with some pallets there and there's some boxes on there.
38:36: And I know that there's probably a good 12, 20 boxes that haven't even been opened yet.
38:42: And it's that stuff that you have. And we just kind of carry it along in life, but we don't do anything about it.
38:48: And I would ask you to really consider this. It's great to have an appetite, a spiritual hunger for the truth and for the word of God.
38:58: But if we take and want truth just for the fact so that we can kind of just toot our horn that we know something.
39:07: We just have it stuck up here in our head that we can answer that question. We can and we can look good in front of the people just because we have this knowledge.
39:16: But if it doesn't go to our feet, so to speak, if we don't live it, if we don't live a life that's becoming or befitting the gospel, or if we don't, you know, what was
39:25: John's, the Apostle John's great delight? If you think about it's in second
39:30: John or third John, he was he was so grateful that his children did what?
39:36: That they walked in the truth. But they walked in the truth.
39:41: Not only did they know it, but they but they walked in it. They were obedient to the things that they knew.
39:47: And I would I would just encourage you, I would exhort you this this year as you learn, as you're reading on your own, the scriptures, as you hear tapes or as you hear something over the
39:59: Internet that you're listening to when the earphones are on, when you're reading your own in your own personal devotions, as you're listening to preaching, as you're taking your notes.
40:11: Strive not just to gain more so that you can, as I said earlier, tuck it away in that warehouse.
40:18: But almost put this. This is a strange analogy, but almost put yourself you think of a warehouse like BJ's and all the shelves and everything that's there.
40:26: Put yourself in this driver's seat of the forklift. So I'm going to get in there. I'm just going to go.
40:32: I'm just going to keep taking this thing off the shelf. And the things on the shelf are the truth that we have that we have been given.
40:38: It's been entrusted to us the things that we've learned and just start getting it out. And you might think I don't have the capability to be able to teach.
40:45: Well, you have the capability by the grace of God to be able to share what you've known. God has worked in your life and maybe changed your speech.
40:54: You used to be someone who used to curse God and you and you used to every other word was a swear and you enjoyed a listening to filthy communication.
41:05: But now God is by his grace. He has just so changed you that you've put away filthy communication and the desire to listen to those things.
41:15: And you want to hear good things and you want to be one who not only receives the truth, but loves to talk about the things of God.
41:23: We'll get in the forklift and drive it out to other people. The things that that you've learned and things that you know about speech or about relationships of what it means to love another person or what it means to help.
41:33: I mean, when you see somebody who's in great need to bear one another's burdens, those those types of things to take the truth to other people and not just and not just a warehouse.
41:43: So that sits on a shelf. And what happens when something sits on the shelf is we forget about it. We we don't we're not experienced in it.
41:50: We just we just don't remember that. How about this when it comes to things that? Well, give me another idea.
41:56: What is it else that God has given to us? What is God deposited to our lives? And we are to be good stewards.
42:03: And before I ask, I got to remember this to share this with you. It's not good enough just to have plans.
42:13: It's not good enough just to talk about doing something. The Lord is not going to judge as you look in the scriptures.
42:21: The Lord didn't didn't judge these folks here by what they said they would do.
42:28: You read in Second Corinthians five, it's for the deeds that are done in the body. It's for it's for action.
42:34: It's for a life of faithful obedience. It's not you know, we can have a thousand ideas and a thousand plans and we can be dreamers.
42:43: But if we don't put our feet to the truth, if we don't obey God and walk in the way of the Lord and walk in the light of the truth of the word of God, then we're going to come up short and there will not be that reward.
42:53: We must walk in a way that is worthy of the Lord and walk circumspectly and walk.
42:59: But but taking the truth and applying it in our lives. Another example, as we wind down this morning.
43:04: Yes. Children, God has entrusted you with children. What do you mean by that?
43:10: What as far as the stewardship there? What would be your desire as a mother with your children? As a mother to train them in the way of the
43:21: Lord, to to invest yourself in them, to not let them go the way that their propensity would be to go, but to to reign them, to to reign them in and to to point them in the direction and to kind of as like the arrows are in the quiver of the of the strong man, the scripture says, and he pulls back the bow.
43:42: And of course, we know that that that children are like those arrows in that quiver to pull back. But before you pull back and they're shot off and they leave us and they go on to to live their own lives, to to point the sharpen them, to make sure that they have the feathers for guidance, to straighten.
43:57: I mean, the the arrows that they shot, they weren't crickety old crooked pieces of sticks.
44:02: They found the straightest and they and they worked on them. And it's going to take an effort by a parent to invest in our children and use the time wisely to do that.
44:11: Yes, Mike. Yes. And you want to point them.
44:17: And of course, ultimately, any Christian parent would desire to point their children, the desire from the time
44:23: God gifts them with that child, that heritage from the Lord is for them to be saved. And the idea would be that their whole life would be
44:31: Jesus Christ. Be wrapped up in him and for his glory. Yes, ma 'am. Would you have your hand up? To plant the seed, the seed of truth, like we talked about earlier, the seed of the gospel.
44:41: Yes. What else has God given us that we don't have much of? We only have a certain amount of time.
44:50: And should we not just consider our days as being very brief? Our life is being very short.
44:56: And Lord, teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom, to not fritter away time, but to redeem the time for the days are evil.
45:06: I saw a hand over here. Yes, ma 'am. God is a gift that he's given us has taken away a fear, the unhealthy fear of God.
45:20: You mean that or the fear of man? Wonderful.
45:30: Yeah, neat.
45:55: And of course, yeah, the fear of death, of course, that is one of the tools of Satan.
46:02: And God delivers us through that through the cross of Christ. Wonderful. How about spiritual gifts? I haven't touched on that.
46:07: But do you know what your spiritual gift is? Have you considered what it is? And you just kind of, well, I'll go to the services another week and go through the week and I'll do my job and go to the grocery store and pay my bills and eat and sleep and go on.
46:20: But what is your spiritual gift? Do you have the gift of mercy, of giving, of helps?
46:27: Do you have the gift of teaching? And are you using the gift for the glory of the Lord? Are you engaged in that?
46:33: What about your talents or just natural talents and abilities that God has given you? I mean, some of you have an inclination when it comes to mechanical things.
46:42: Do you use them for the glory of God? Some of you are mathematics, scientific. Do you use that for the glory of God? Some of you are athletic or physical in your life.
46:49: Do you use that in some way for God's glory, helping other people or using it in the ministry of the gospel, the furtherance of the kingdom and so forth?
46:57: The idea is whatever you have been given to Jesus says, do business, trade, make a profit, have it increase just like you would expect that if you put it in the bank, you'd want there to be an increase.
47:10: And one day the Lord is going to come. And the idea is he's going to look, as it says in verse 15, and he wants to know at the end of verse 15, how much every man has gained by our trading, by this occupying of ourselves with the things of God, by our doing heavenly business, earning in our business, getting gain by trading in our lives.
47:32: There's the analogy in the parable, but in our lives, it is taking these things that God has deposited to us and using them for the glory of God.
47:39: Have that thought for this coming year. We're only two days away. January 1st is
47:47: Tuesday. 2008. Another year has gone by. And what is it that God is going to use us to accomplish individually by his grace and for his glory, but as a church together.
48:00: And let's be mindful of this principle of taking that which he's given us and having an increase.
48:06: Let's pray. Father, thank you for the time that we spent together. I trust that in a portion of this, we would be encouraged, we would be helped.
48:16: We'd be challenged and convicted to so order our lives. So think about what it is that we're doing to take some a bit of a spiritual inventory to consider our time, our talents, our spiritual gifts, the truth that you've given to us, the gospel that you've given to our care, the ministry of Christian things in the world and the ministry of the church and what it is to be a member and what it is to participate and contribute and help us
48:51: Lord to so focus that we might live for Christ and we might live for eternity and not just for time and help us to more glorify
49:00: Jesus Christ and all that we do and that when you come, Lord God, you would be pleased because we've been obedient and faithful to you and we've done it all by your good grace toward us.